


What Dreams May Come

by weavernaut



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Blackrom, Dream Bubbles, F/F, Making Out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-28
Updated: 2011-12-28
Packaged: 2017-10-28 07:41:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/305468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weavernaut/pseuds/weavernaut
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jade Harley dreams of another witch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Dreams May Come

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Snakewife](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snakewife/gifts).



> Happy Winter Holidays and end of winter, Snakewife! I hope you like this, I tried making it as much about their rivalry as their hair-pulling make-outs.

i.  
There was no night, nor day, in the Golden Yard — only the streaks of light outside the ship, showing that it was still moving toward its goal. The streaks made Jade dizzy — she tried not to look at them, but there was precious little else to look at. Most days, she chose to sleep and dream of others’ memories.

This dream bubble was an unfamiliar seashore, littered with bleached bones and plastic bottles, lit by pink and green moons. Jade sat down on a boulder and watched the waves lap at the sand. The place smelled of sea salt and sticky, dried soda — probably grape, Jade’s newly sensitive nose told her. It was not unpleasant.

She could not tell how much time passed before she saw someone swimming toward shore, swiftly and easily. Soon enough, the figure stood knee-deep in water — chubby and long-haired, moonlight flashing off the lenses of her goggles.

Feferi, angler-fish teeth bared in a grin, approached Jade with a swaying gait, unsure on land. She carried her seaweed-adorned hair draped over one arm. A few meters away from Jade, Feferi freed her arm from its burden and pulled her goggles up onto her forehead. Jade sprang up and took two steps back: her eyes were an empty white, no pupil or iris in sight. Feferi kept on walking, getting right up in her personal space, teeth-first. She smelled of seaweed and things rotted in the water and fish. Jade involuntarily wrinkled her nose.

“Hiiiii!” Feferi said, grinning even wider. Her voice was harsh and high. Jade winced and took another step back, tripping over a Faygo bottle to sit down on the sand, hard. Feferi crouched down beside her, smile still at a full hundred murderous watts.

“Er, hi,” Jade said and leaned away as Feferi leaned in. “I guess this is your memory?”

Feferi stood up and took in their surroundings, twirling around.

“Suuuuure is! It’s the first time I came up for air!” she sat down again and cocked her head at Jade. “Do you like it?”

“Ummmmm, no,” Jade said. “I’m sorry, but it’s creepy!”

Feferi cackled at that, a proper witch-like laugh and clapped her hands to her mouth.

“It glubbing is!” she said and jumped up again. “Isn’t it WONDERFUL?”

Jade said nothing, unwilling to risk getting another of Feferi’s smiles.

“My Alternia,” Feferi crooned. “My Alternia is BEAUTIFUL and TERRIBLE and VICIOUS! It’s like a shark and it swims and swims and swims and eeeeaaats the smaller things!”

“I’m sure it’s just great!” Jade said, raising her hands, palms out toward Feferi — the interplanetary, interspecies sign for being unarmed and disinclined to make physical contact. “But it’s a little too morbid for my tastes!” Jade counted five nervous seconds before adding, “I’m sorry!”

Feferi’s terrible empty gaze met Jade’s and Jade backed away again. Feferi giggled and grabbed Jade’s arm, claws tearing bloody gouges into Jade’s dark skin. Jade flinched and Feferi smiled again, bringing her face close enough to Jade’s that Jade could see between the gaps in Feferi’s teeth, into her mouth, a pink prison behind bone and enamel bars, housing a black tongue.

“You think this is glubbing morbid?” Feferi said, her voice bright as an interrogator’s lamp. “This? You haven’t seen the half of it!” she laughed again, great tinkling peals, like a million tiny bells. Jade shuddered, not least because her claws were still deep in her forearm, starting to draw blood. She wished to be back on the ship, in the bland but comforting Golden Yard, where sea witches did not talk of shark empires and where her newly caninized senses did not overwhelm her.

“Do you wanna seeeee?” Feferi asked, looking her straight in the eye. Jade snarled, white ears flattening against her skull and Feferi giggled yet again. “Of coooouuuurse you do!” she sang, pulling Jade after her. “Come ooooon. Close your eyes!!”

ii.  
The new memory smelled like blood and dirt and a new, unfamiliar smell, one Jade thought may have been fear. Then as the dream bubble focused itself, came the sounds — distant screams, faint but persistent. Jade put her hands over her ears and whimpered. Feferi laughed and put her arms around Jade, gentle as you please. Then she stood on tiptoe, pried away Jade’s hand and cooed into her doggy ear, “And thiiiiiis is the culling fields!”

Jade cautiously opened one eye and found her glasses splattered with something green and sticky. Feferi clucked her tongue and took Jade’s glasses to begin wiping them clean. Jade stared at the blurred landscape and saw only coloured blobs.

“It’s how Alternia keeps itself strong!” Feferi said, perching the glasses back on Jade’s nose. Everything jumped into horrible focus.

They were standing ankle-deep in a sludge of multicoloured blood and dirt and what Jade could only think of as _squashed bug parts_. The lifeless bodies of grubs — fat multicoloured maggots, the size of Jade’s forearm — were scattered across the field. Some still had their heads attached, little round troll heads with tiny horns. Jade clasped her hands to her mouth, afraid of vomiting. The screams were coming from somewhere behind them and were growing fainter and fainter. Eventually, only one voice still cried for mercy. Then it, too, was cut off forever.

“My Alternia,” Feferi whispered, transfixed.

“Um,” said Jade, for lack of something better to say. Feferi leaned her head on Jade’s shoulder, the blunt tip of one horn nudging Jade’s skull.

“But it’d be different when I’m the Empress,” Feferi said, dreamily and reached up to tug playfully at one of Jade’s ears. “I gotta say, this is a pretty great sight, though! If you imagine they’re your enemies and not little wrigglers.”

Jade grit her teeth and pushed Feferi away. Feferi stumbled, unbalanced and landed in a muddy puddle. She tried getting up and Jade pushed her back in. Feferi pouted at her, but said nothing, only got up and began wringing out her skirt.

“Fiiiine, be that glubbing way! I’m getting TIRED of this memory, anyway,” she said, baring her teeth at Jade, whose response was to stick out her tongue. “How about I show you something else?”

iii.  
“This isn’t my memory,” Feferi said, skipping down the hill, dragging Jade after her. “But you’re helping me bend some rules, witchy!” she glanced over her shoulder and winked at Jade. Jade shuddered.

There was a crowd of trolls at the bottom of the hill, talking and yelling and stomping their feet. Jade put her hands where her human ears would’ve been and made an utterly pathetic whine when she realised it didn’t help. Feferi put an arm around her waist.

“They’ll shut up soon!” Feferi said, shepherding Jade to the crowd. “Once the fun begins!”

“Fun?” Jade croaked. Feferi pulled her into the crowd and pushed and kicked and shoved her way through until they were at the very front, a little worse for wear. Someone’s sharp claws had raked across Jade’s cheek and Feferi had bitten — outright _bitten_ — the offending troll. Jade had closed her eyes after that and allowed herself to be led through the press of bodies. The smell — blood, sweat, spittle and dirt — was almost overwhelming. She wanted to vomit.

“Okay, witchy!” Feferi cooed. “Open your eyes now.”

Jade opened up one eye and then immediately put her hands over her face, under the glasses lenses.

She had glimpsed — only glimpsed, but oh, it was enough — a troll, the blood covering him as red as a human’s, chained by the wrists to a column. She could see his manacles glow red-hot and she could smell his flesh burning. She pushed Feferi away as hard as she could and shouldered her way through the crowd. Then she ran, without looking, trying not to vomit.

Feferi caught up with her and slung her arm around her shoulder and said, “oh Jade, oh Jade, I’m SORRY” and the dream bubble shifted and changed again, to a dark forest. They crouched amid mossy rocks and Jade could smell the leaf mulch and the tiny, parasitic wild flowers that grew on the tree trunks. Jade pulled down her god hood and freed her hair from it, hoping that more air on her face would make her feel even a little bit better, a little bit less sick.

“Wh-who,” Jade said and then scrambled away from Feferi, to throw up. Feferi approached her again, cautiously, and stroked her hair and murmured soothing things while Jade retched. Once nothing but frothy bile was coming up, Jade sat up and put the heels of her hands against her eyes and bawled in terror. Feferi nudged her and opened up her arms — half a question, half an invite — and Jade fell into the hug, gratefully. She rubbed her nose against the place where Feferi’s neck became her shoulder and Feferi slipped a hand under all of Jade’s hair to stroke her neck and upper back.

“See how terrible my Alternia is?” Feferi said, in an undertone. “What a waste.” She tutted.

“I suppose you’d put him to work, Fef!” Jade said, breaking the hug. She gave one last sniff and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “You’d make him work in the grist mines, make a … a r-real troll of him!”

Feferi threw back her head and laughed and her teeth glinted in the moonlight. “Of course not, stupid! I’d give him a real education and make him an advisor! And then I’d do sooo much better than my glubbing Ancestor!”

Jade frowned, but said nothing. Feferi’s teeth were transfixing her. Feferi chattered on, but Jade let it slide past without trying to comprehend it.

“I always felt so sorry for him,” Feferi was saying. She’d noticed Jade staring and was idly showing off her claws and making sure to enunciate each word so that her lips curled up and showed more elegant, angler-fish fang. “Always felt so BAD for EVERYONE! Everyone who’s not strong.”

“Really?” Jade said, idly. She reached out and lightly touched one of Feferi’s external gills and Feferi blushed bright pink against grey and then grabbed Jade’s wrist and squeezed hard.

“REALLY! I’d take care of everyone! When I’m the empress, I’ll take care of them all,” Feferi, flushed with righteous passion, fixed Jade’s gaze with her own, empty white eyes. “I’d make them STRONG! And okay.”

“Um,” Jade said, jerked from her reverie. “What do mean by okay?”

Feferi smiled so gently that Jade snarled again in terror and twisted her arm out of Feferi’s grasp. She rubbed it, absent-mindedly, carefully avoiding meeting Feferi’s dreadful empty gaze again.

“I mean okay, stupid!” Feferi said and cackled and ruffled Jade’s hair. Then she grabbed great handfuls and yanked, making Jade grimace and grab at Feferi’s wrists. She gripped hard, and Feferi let go. Jade’s heart was pounding in her ears now, hammering against the soft cartilage of her throat.

“What’s okay to you?” Jade yelped. It came out all high and excited and nervous and not the threatening growl she’d been hoping to achieve. But Feferi quailed.  
“Upright!” she said, nervously. “Upright and bright-eyed and open-gilled! And … and … capable of … serving! And fiiiighting! I’d make them STRONG, Jade! Strong and worthy! That’s what culling would be, making all the worthless chaff strong!”

Jade snarled at that and scooted away from Feferi. Feferi grabbed her ankle and pulled her closer again.

“You’re so awful,” Jade said and tried to kick at Feferi’s arm. Feferi adjusted her grip on Jade’s ankle and then grabbed the other one. Her touch was chilly and still damp. It made Jade shiver in a very unfamiliar way. She wanted to pull Feferi’s hair, to grind her face in the dirt, to kiss her and bite her tongue just as it was getting good.

“You’re so soft,” Feferi scoffed. “Soft and unwilling to HELP! Are you really that selfish?”

“Shellfish,” Jade said. “You mean shellfish, right?”

Feferi goggled at her, mouth slightly open. Her grip had gone slack and Jade maneuvered herself out of her grasp and moved her legs away. Feferi cocked her head to one side, her face expressionless and then smiled.

“I do! Yes, I do!” she moved closer to Jade, again and put both hands on Jade’s shoulders.

“I bite,” Jade said, quickly.

“I know, stupid,” Feferi said and planted a careful, chaste kiss on Jade’s mouth. “I know.”

Jade leaned forward and bared her teeth.

“You’re awful,” she repeated. She was breathing very heavily now and her hands were shaking a little. Her face felt hot.

“So are you,” Feferi smiled at her.

Jade lunged forward and tackled Feferi to the ground. Feferi threw her arms around Jade’s waist and pulled her closer. They lay like that for some time, breathing and snarling at each other, Feferi digging her nails into Jade’s back and Jade pulling at Feferi’s external gills. Then Jade lowered her face and kissed Feferi and bit her lower lip. Feferi kicked out at the empty air and giggled and kissed Jade back. Then she reached up to tug at Jade’s hair again, Jade’s outstretched tongue grasped between two needle teeth. Jade pushed her hands away and pinned Feferi to the ground. She was straddling Feferi now, shaking from nervousness. Feferi lay back, head cocked, smiling. Jade closed her eyes and screwed up her courage, then lunged in for another kiss, just as Feferi brought her head up.

They collided, teeth-first, with enough force to make Jade’s head ring. She yelped, Feferi yelped, too and pushed her off.

“Owwwww. That wasn’t fun!”

Jade probed at her teeth, experimentally, found that none had been knocked out or even loosened and looked at Feferi, sheepishly.

“Sorry? I’ve never kissed anyone before!”

“Well it shows,” Feferi sniffed. “Let me try, okay?”

“Ummmmm, sure?” Jade said. Feferi had brought her face very close now. She grabbed Jade’s chin and kissed her, sloppily. Feferi bit at Jade’s lip, then when Jade gasped, stuck her tongue into Jade’s mouth. Jade giggled — Feferi’s black tongue felt a little funny, rougher than a human tongue. The shape was all wrong too — long and skinny. When they finally let go of each other again, Feferi had gotten one of her hands helplessly tangled in Jade’s hair and Jade had accidentally cut her cheek on one of Feferi’s teeth. Feferi wiped the blood off with her sleeve and gently kissed the cut. Jade laced her fingers through Feferi’s hair and pulled her into an embrace.

“You know,” Jade said. “I wanna show you something, too!”

“Oh?”

“Yeah!” Jade said, grinning and showing off her canines. “I think it’ll be really enlightening!”

iv.  
Jade took them to the darkness of space. Feferi had to cling to her, to maintain some sort of composure — it was like swimming, but no, not quite. There was no comforting pressure of water this time. Just nothing and the distant stars and nebulae, looming like ancient monsters. And debris.

They were floating, just barely above an asteroid belt. A couple of smaller pebbles bounced off Feferi’s legs. A misshapen cylinder, with unfamiliar writing, floated past to the right of Jade’s head.

“Space is really pretty,” Jade said, turning around slowly. “Look! That nebulae looks like a dragon!”

Feferi wasn’t sure what a dragon was, but she looked and frowned and scoffed.

“It’s got nothing on the undersea!” she said, hiding her face in Jade’s shoulder, gently stroking Jade’s neck with a claw. Jade nudged her and pointed at a star that hovered closer than others. It was the size of Feferi’s eyeball and surrounded by five tiny specks — its planets.

“It’s a solar system!” Feferi said. “Big dea—”

“Shhhh! Kepp watching,” Jade said, gently putting her hand over Feferi’s mouth.

The star — so bright blue that it was almost white — suddenly was not a star any more. It was an expanding nebulae, white and blue and golden, engulfing the planet-specks. Then there was just the nebulae, lazily pulsating.

“Glub,” Feferi said. She reached a hand out toward the nebula and then let it fall limply to her side.

“The second planet was populated,” Jade said in an undertone. Feferi turned to her, ready to yell or strike or just die on the spot from the surge of anger at being one-upped and the surge of blackest affection for the little witch and Jade kissed her, hard. Feferi kissed back. Her feet touched grass again. The sky above was blue and the sun did not burn. Jade pushed Feferi back against the trunk of a tree — red-barked and covered in tiny white flowers — and kissed her again. Feferi bit Jade’s lip.

The dream bubble shifted again — now she was sitting on a pile of plush squiddles, staring at a poster that depicted, against all possibility, a purrbeast on a broomstick. In a witch’s hat. Feferi glimpsed Jade sitting on the bed, dangling her legs and giggling, before she melted away into the thin air and was gone. 

“Whale carp,” Feferi said, to the empty room.

v.

The ship sped on.

Jade sat up in her makeshift nest of blankets and looked out to the nauseating sky beyond. Then she got up and found John, who was trying to get a couple of salamanders and a crocodile to watch Night at the Museum with him. It was not going well — the crocodile ran away with the DVD in his mouth. Jade giggled and went over to help John chase the crocodile down.

Somewhere in a room that was mostly a memory, Feferi curled up on a pile of squiddles and bright blue blankets and tried to remember how to sleep.


End file.
